NSF PR 95-61 - September 14, 1995
Media contact: |
Mary E. Hanson |
(703) 306-1070 |
egaston@nsf.gov |
Program contact: |
David Graves,
InterNIC Business Manager
Network Solutions |
(703) 742-4884 |
|
This material is available primarily for archival purposes. Telephone
numbers or other contact information may be out of date; please see current
contact information at media
contacts.
The Internet Grows Up: Domain Name Services No Longer
Subsidized by Taxpayers
As interest in the Internet rises beyond belief, the
demand for domain names has gone beyond the National
Science Foundation's ability to continue completely
funding the service. Network Solutions, based in Herndon
Virginia, provides registration services for the non-military
portion of the Internet under its cooperative agreement
with the NSF.
Domain names are Internet "addresses" -- and the registration
process creates a database which maps the names to
the numbers used for Internet routing. When Network
Solutions began operation in spring of 1993, new domains
were being registered at a rate of 400 per month.
In October 1994, this number reached 2,000 per month
and it is estimated that by the end of the year, the
figure will top 20,000 per month. This incredible
demand has created up to a five week delay in registering
new domain names.
While the NSFNET, an Internet precursor, was created
to serve the research and academic community, currently
less than three percent of domain names are higher
educational (.edu) or government (.gov) -- most are
commercial users (.com).
Effective September 14 , an annual fee of $50 will
be charged for the registration of second level domain
name in each of the top level domains maintained by
Network Solutions (.edu, .gov, .com, .net, .org).
(Examples of second-level domains include: nsf.gov,
netsol.com, mit.edu, aol.com.) New registrants will
pay a $100 fee for a two-year registration; and thereafter
will pay $50 per year. Organizations registered prior
to September 14 will be charged the $50 annual fee
on the anniversary of their initial registration.
The fees will be charged ONLY to second-level domain
name registrants in the five top level domains for
which the InterNIC provides registration services.
These fees do not affect the typical end-user who
now subscribes through a commercial service such as
CompuServe, Prodigy and America Online nor will they
impact campus or business users who access a local
network from their desktop, dormatory or home. (Military
addresses, identified by .mil, will continue to be
handled by a separate registration authority supported
by the Department of Defense.)
Consistent with its responsibility to support networking
in the academic research community, the National Science
Foundation will continue to defray the costs of registration
in the .edu domain. NSF will also pay the fees for
current .gov registrants for on an interim basis to
allow government agencies time to identify an alternate
source of funding.
"This system represents NSF's continued efforts to
privatize the commercial aspects of the ever-growing
Internet, while still providing oversight and supporting
the research and academic community," said George
Strawn, director of the division of networking and
communications research and infrastructure. "It also
addresses a pressing need as NSF funding for domain
name services expires October 1."
Funding obtained through the collection of fees represents
another step in the move to make the Internet self-supporting
and less reliant on tax dollars for support. In April,
the NSF decommissioned the NSFNET and instituted a
new architecture provided by commercial companies.
Information about the fees has been posted on the Internet
at URL (Uniform Resource Locator): http//rs.internic.net/announcements/index.html.
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